Military Reveals Recruitment Database

The U.S. Department of Defense has been quietly keeping a database with personal information on about 30 million high-school and college students-classified as potential military recruits-for three years before revealing it to the public, the department acknowledged Thursday.

Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, GPAs and other information on students aged 16-25-years old are in the database, which is managed by a private marketing company.

According to the Web site of the department's Joint Advertising, Market Research and Studies Program, the database is "arguably the largest repository of 16-25-year-old youth data in the country."

The database is a consolidation of all current databases of possible student recruits, said defense department spokesperson Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke.

The Privacy Act of 1974 requires public notification when a system of records is being compiled by a federal, state or government agency.

Though the Pentagon called up Massachusetts-based company BeNow to manage the database in 2002, the Federal Register entry notifying the public was published this May. The public comment period on the database expired June 22.

Government officials said they believed that they were in compliance with the act until they were informed in 2004 that a public disclosure was required, and that the recent notification was an attempt to correct that mistake.

David Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a recent press briefing that it was a "fair complaint" that the public should have been notified when the database was first created.

Chu added that the military has been keeping a more decentralized database of student information on file for decades.

But critics complain that this database is dangerous because it puts a large amount of sensitive data into private hands.

Chris Hoofnagle, director of the West Coast division of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in San Francisco, said putting a private company at the helm of the student database is risky.

"Essentially, this direct marketing company is gonna have your data," he said. "The biggest risk is insider misuse of the database."

But Krenke said the military was sensitive to concerns about information security. "We realize that this is personal data and we take every effort to safeguard it," she said.

Hoofnagle said companies could develop other ways besides Social Security numbers to identify people, and reduce the likelihood of security breaches.

"We argue that companies shouldn't even store Social Security numbers-it doesn't need them to operate," Hoofnagle said.

UC spokesperson Brigitte Donner said the university is currently investigating the issue.

UC Berkeley senior Ankur Garg, whose father is an Air Force engineer, said that although he grew up on a military base, he is bothered by the military's pressure to enlist.

Although his career plans do not include military service, Garg has received recruitment-related mail in the past.

"If I want a job, I can apply to the military as I so choose," he said. "I sure as hell don't want them recruiting."

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